Posted on 02/17/2011 11:14:35 AM PST by greatdefender
Today's lessons for would-be environmental vandals: If you're going to take it upon yourself to destroy a venerable icon beloved by hundreds of thousands of people, a) Pick a target that's not monitored by camera 24 hours a day, and b) Don't call in to the most popular radio show in the state to brag about your crime. Otherwise, you might end up like 62-year-old Alabama fan Harvey Almorn Updyke, better known now as "Al from Dadeville," who was arrested early this morning for allegedly applying a lethal dose of herbicide to a pair of 130-year-old oaks at Toomer's Corner, the traditional campus meeting point for Auburn fans to celebrate victory by rolling the trees. Updyke is charged with criminal mischief and was being held this morning on $50,000 bond.
His arrest came less than 18 hours after Auburn confirmed the poisoning in a release on Wednesday afternoon. Initially, the university was alerted by a caller to the Paul Finebaum Show on Jan. 27, "Al from Dadeville," who proudly described poisoning the trees with Spike 80DF the same herbicide later found in soil samples a few days after Auburn's comeback win over Alabama last November. According to the university, the lowest level of Spike detected in samples was 0.78 parts per million, "a very lethal dose." The highest level detected was 51 parts per million, some 65 times that lethal dose, which is possibly enough to warrant significant environmental penalties. (The university also said there's "no reason to suspect any human danger from the herbicide," and expert said at a press conference this morning that there's very little chance any groundwater would be affected.) Auburn police chief Tommy Dawson said this morning Updyke potentially faces further charges, but declined to elaborate.
(Excerpt) Read more at rivals.yahoo.com ...
Community service is the answer.
Give him a hand saw and axe to chop up the dead trees. Then he can carry the wood, piece by piece, to the houses of local poor people to use as firewood next winter.
Then give him one of those tiny flower garden shovels and make him remove every cubic inch of contaminated soil and root. Give him a wheelbarrow to use to haul it to the dump.
Then he can pay for replacement trees to be shipped in.
There is an old Pin Oak between the old trail path and the highway that was called The Hanging Tree. Its trunk is about 6 1/2 feet in diameter. I hope on one ever poisons that tree.
“130 years old..... Apparently we have their birth certificates.”
You ever hear of counting rings in trees?
I’m sixty two. When I was FOUR I wouldn’t have done such a thing.
The EPA ought to be able to fine the s**t out of this jerk for soil damage alone. My workplace can be liable for hundreds of thousands in EPA fines if the smallest amount of petroleum products is detected in stormwater or downstream.
He should be publically humiliated on an annual basis. Ideas?
The Democrat side of Congress?
Rolling = TP rolls
I thought the very same thought. Seeing his background also makes me wonder how many folks this guy rail-roaded when he was a Texas state Trooper?
What an ass! Such an ass in fact that he needs a football kicked up his butt.
The jail is full of them here in Columbus on fall weekends. And I'm not talking about drunk kids puking on the sidewalk, I'm talking about "adults" who commit arson, assault and vandalism in their belief that it makes them Buckeye fans.
Trees can be cored and rings counted. That’s how we know CO2 causes Gorebal Warning.
I read he named his 2 daughters Bear Bryant and Crimson Tide. Crimson has a FB page and her photo is one of the trees burning. I think she was born in 1970.
Remember, its just entertainment.
Not to an average University of Alabama fan who never attended the University of Alabama.
I've lived all over the country. I've seen all kinds of fans of different universities with outstanding football traditions. As I sit here, a few hundred miles away, the University of Alabama is the only situation I've seen where fans honestly believe they are better in the eyes of God because they support a particular college football team. And the fans I speak about generally never attended a class in Tuscaloosa.
I believe if you could take an anonymous poll, the majority of Alabama fans who didn't attend the University of Alabama (and quite possibly a majority of those who did) are cheering Mr. Updyke.
I hope a judge adds as a condition of the sentence that this idiot is barred from attending Alabama games; owning Alabama paraphernalia; stepping foot on the campuses of Auburn and Alabama Universities; as well as watching them on television or listening to them on the radio.
We would do, in essence, a ‘Philip Nolan’ on him, except he'd be the Man Without a Football Team.
This would warrant the death penalty in Carmel CA.
This is like the A-hole who burned the Texas governor’s mansion. It’s just senseless vandalism.
In response to this felony by a man who just happens to be an Alabama fan, you bring up Auburn and probation? How ‘bout a little class.
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